Tempted to rate this a little lower, but I did still solidly enjoy it. With the way the first book ended, I was not surprised at how dark this story became, but it did take longer than I hoped for Nirrim and Sid to reunite. When reading the first book, I didn't even know this series was spinoff to another by the author, but in this book it felt a little more like I was missing a piece somewhere. I didn't hate what was happening, but looking back, I realize just how many "refresher" moments there were for people who read the other books. I definitely didn't get that feeling with the first book. This time it felt like I was getting an unnecessary amount of backstory for Sid's family, but makes sense now that I know they are characters from the original series.

I did kind of love evil Nirrim. She went from one extreme to another - from loving too much and being naive to being straight up cruel. I enjoyed the nods to her becoming more and more like Raven or the Lord Protector, or anyone in general that she originally was against. Even if you start out the 'good guy' you can still become a big asshole. At the end that old Nirrim could never come back, because Nirrim would always have to live with the consequences of her actions, even what she did when she did not have her compassion, and I was worried they would try to shrug that off.

Overall the ending felt a little rushed, which called even more attention to all the backstory of Sid's family, but at least she did get some character growth from that. But I do wish it had just focused on getting back to Nirrim and "fixing" her instead.